Plaintiff contends that § 424 of the Act creates two classes of civilly admitted or committed patients for purposes of Due Process safeguards. One class, composed of all patients who have not been adjudged incompetent, is denied any prior notice or hearing before the Commonwealth takes control of those patients' assets and appropriates part of such assets to satisfy § 501 claims. Another class, composed of adjudged incompetent patients, is afforded both prior notice and hearing before the Commonwealth can seize control of their funds and appropriate them to satisfy § 501 assessments. Section 424 further separates these two classes by requiring the Commonwealth to seek, under the Incompetents' Estates Act of 1955, the appointment of a guardian for patients with assets in excess of $2,500, thereby augmenting the latter class. As to those patients with less than $2,500, however, the Commonwealth does not have to give them the benefit of notice or an opportunity for a hearing on whether they are incompetent, so these patients generally have no guardian or court to protect their assets, thus relegating them to the former, disadvantaged class.

On March 2, 1973, the District Court, sitting alone, and pursuant to a stipulation of the parties, ordered that temporary relief be afforded plaintiff until the case could be determined by the three-judge court.
*fn5"
Following a pretrial conference, the parties agreed that, with the exception of the testimony of two psychiatrists, the case could be determined on a stipulated record. A stipulation of facts was thereupon admitted the allegations contained in virtually all the paragraphs of plaintiff's complaint. For the hearing, plaintiff submitted an extensive brief upon the law. The Commonwealth submitted no brief, either before or after trial. For the reasons which follow, we agree with plaintiff's contentions that the provisions of § 424 in question offend the Equal Protection Clause and that as to the disadvantaged class, § 424 of the Act violates procedural Due Process guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment. Accordingly, the permanent relief requested by plaintiff will be granted.
*fn6"

Defendant Helene Wohlgemuth is Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare, charged with the administration of the mental health and mental retardation program of Pennsylvania, including executive supervision of Byberry. Defendant Franklyn R. Clarke, M.D., is Superintendent of Byberry and is responsible under the Act for the immediate administration and operation of Byberry, including supervision of the office of Revenue Agent at that institution. Defendant Elwood N. Shoemaker is the Revenue Agent at Byberry and charged under §§ 424 and 501 of the Act with assessing liability for the costs of care and maintenance and taking custody of any money or other personal property in the possession of any patient at Byberry, and of any gifts, legacies, pensions, insurance payments, retirement benefits or payments to which any competent patient at Byberry, or any non-adjudged incompetent patient with assets less than $2,500 may be entitled.

B. The Statute as Applied to Plaintiff

The plaintiff was confined at Byberry from October 29, 1971, to April 16, 1973. The Commonwealth concedes that she was at all times during her confinement competent to manage her financial affairs. Yet, by virtue of the statute, defendant Shoemaker is required to apply half of the plaintiff's money to maintain a petty cash reserve fund for each patient of up to $500, and uses the other half and any funds in excess of the $500 reserve to pay for the assessed costs, without prior adjudication of liability or attachment proceedings of any kind. In terms of the plaintiff's property, defendant Shoemaker, without notice and hearing or explanation, acting pursuant to §§ 424 and 501, summarily seized and appropriated $1,253.85 of her Social Security OASDI benefits to pay the alleged debt incurred by her for her care and treatment at Byberry. In the same manner, the Commonwealth seized control of an additional $1,356.63 of her Social Security OASDI benefits, and interest thereon, and deprived her of control thereof until her discharge. This $1,356.63 was turned over to plaintiff as follows: $332.39 was returned in cash at the time of discharge; $766.64 was spent by plaintiff from her petty cash fund as authorized by her attending physician over the course of her hospitalization, and, pursuant to this Court's Temporary Restraining Order, $257.60 was returned to plaintiff after she had established a permanent residence at 2024 Green Street, Philadelphia, Pa. in May 1973.

(b) Absent a knowing voluntary and intelligent assignment of Social Security OASDI benefits by the plaintiff, of which there was none, she alleges that such benefits are under the express terms of 42 U.S.C. § 407 insulated from claims of creditors, including the state as provider of services. See Philpott v. Essex County Welfare Board, 409 U.S. 413, 93 S. Ct. 590, 34 L. Ed. 2d 608 (1973). Accord, In re Algier's Estate, 43 D & C 2d 351 (Chester Cy. O.C. 1967).

(c) Plaintiff alleges that throughout her hospitalization Byberry afforded her less than constitutionally required treatment under Wyatt v. Stickney, 344 F. Supp. 387 (M.D. Ala. 1972), thereby prolonging her hospitalization and the costs therefor or warranting that she not have been committed at all.
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Alternatively, plaintiff contends that the value of her care, on a quantum meruit basis or otherwise, was less than the value of her benefits appropriated by the Commonwealth. To support this contention, plaintiff notes that, until enjoined by Temporary Restraining Order dated March 2, 1973, the Commonwealth continued to appropriate at least 50% of plaintiff's Social Security OASDI benefits, despite the fact that from January 19, 1973, plaintiff no longer required hospitalization.

The Equal Protection Clause . . . imposes a requirement of some rationality in the nature of the class singled out. . . . The Equal Protection Clause does require that, in defining a class subject to legislation, the distinctions that are drawn have "some relevance to the purpose for which the classification is made." (citations omitted.)

The Pennsylvania statute and collection practice challenged herein fails to meet this minimal rationality standard of equal protection. Section 424 establishes two classes of civilly admitted or committed mental patients. The first consists of all patients adjudged incompetent by a court of appropriate jurisdiction. The second class consists of all patients not adjudged incompetent. As noted, since under § 424(4), the Commonwealth must initiate proceedings under the Incompetents' Estates Act of 1955 to seek a guardian for all patients with assets in excess of $2,500, the first class is thus augmented, although if such patients are not adjudged incompetent, then they fall into the second, disadvantaged class, which also perforce includes those with assets less than $2,500. As to the first class, payment to the Commonwealth out of each incompetent's estate must, by force of Pennsylvania law governing administration of incompetents' estates, be preceded by notice to all interested parties and by judicial hearing and approval. As to the second class (in which plaintiff finds herself), §§ 424 and 501 expressly authorize defendants to summarily deprive this class of patients of custody and control of their property and apply it to pay hospital costs without prior or subsequent notice and hearing as to any patient indebtedness or the availability of patient property in satisfaction thereof.

The Commonwealth has pointed to no rational basis, not even revenue raising, for classifying mental patients in this manner for any purpose set forth in the Act. In fact, when viewed in light of § 504(a) of the Act, which is calculated to alleviate the harsh economic and psychological consequences to indigent mental patients of strict imposition of § 501 costs, the practices authorized by §§ 424(1) and 501 appear counter-productive and internally inconsistent with the goals of the Act. More affluent incompetent mental patients would presumably be better able to afford the costs under § 501 and would therefore be a great source of income. Maximizing the right of such persons to resist imposition of liability, while minimizing the rights of all others seems arbitrary and capricious.

In the instant case, property rights entitled to constitutional protection are at stake.
*fn12"
As in the case of the welfare benefits involved in Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 25 L. Ed. 2d 287, 90 S. Ct. 1011 (1970), and the driver's license involved in Bell v. Burson, 402 U.S. 535, 29 L. Ed. 2d 90, 91 S. Ct. 1586 (1971), the Social Security benefits or other income patients receive and which defendants have intercepted and appropriated under §§ 424 and 501 of the Act are a matter of statutory entitlement to plaintiff, and thus are property within the meaning of the Due Process Clause. Goldberg v. Kelly, supra 397 U.S. at 262. Moreover, defendants' practice of taking custody and control of all monies in addition to the funds appropriated by the Commonwealth deprives plaintiff of her rights to use of her property. Cf. Fuentes v. Shevin, 407 U.S. 67 at 86, 32 L. Ed. 2d 556, 92 S. Ct. 1983 (1972). See also Sniadac v. Family Finance Corp., 395 U.S. at 342 (Harlan, J. concurring).

In our view, the plaintiff's suit challenges a more objectionable practice than that struck down in Fuentes. Here, unlike Fuentes, the state interference with the plaintiff's right to use and control her property is in behalf of itself as creditor. See In re Estate of Rabe, 437 Pa. 72, 77-78, 261 A.2d 603 (1970). Here, unlike Fuentes, there is no provision for posting of a counter-bond by the plaintiff, or any analogous procedure, by which the plaintiff can seek restoration of her property pending final determination of liability. Finally, the Fuentes court struck down the Florida replevin statute even though it included a full subsequent hearing. In the instant action there is no requirement that Pennsylvania ever afford plaintiff a subsequent hearing, nor an administrative procedure called to our attention for doing so.

Analogous to the instant case is Dale v. Hahn, 486 F.2d 76 (2d Cir. 1973), aff'g Unreported District Court Order, on remand from 440 F.2d 633 (2d Cir. 1971), wherein New York's failure to provide adequate notice prior to the appointment of a committee to receive and disburse plaintiff's assets was challenged as violative of the Due Process Clause and of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The Dale court was faced with the circumstance that a patient was not adequately notified of the pendency of a judicial proceeding in which the state declared her incompetent and suspended her right to possession, use and control of her property. In the instant case, the state does not even provide a judicial hearing, let alone notice thereof. A fortiori the practice assailed herein must be set aside as violative of the Due Process Clause.
*fn13"

At oral argument the Commonwealth attempted to justify its practice of taking custody of plaintiff's property before its right to appropriate the property can be judicially established, on the theory that there is an immediate threat of destruction, loss or mismanagement of the sought-after property by this type of plaintiff. The Commonwealth argument must fail for two reasons. The first problem with the Commonwealth's argument is that even if the Commonwealth's practice was generally justifiable under the facts, the statutes in question are not sufficiently narrowly drawn to track their alleged purpose. A similar type of class presumption
*fn14"
was raised and rejected in Fuentes v. Shevin, supra with respect to the entire population of debtors there subject to prejudgment replevin. The statutes assailed herein, as in Fuentes, are not drawn to meet the "unusual condition" of an immediate risk of loss or destruction posed by certain individuals, but are aimed at an entire undifferentiated population. See also Lebowitz v. Forbes Leasing & Finance Corp., 326 F. Supp. 1335, 1349 (E.D. Pa. 1971), aff'd 456 F.2d 979 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 843, 34 L. Ed. 2d 82, 93 S. Ct. 42 (1972).

The second and even more fundamental problem with the Commonwealth's attempted justification of the statutes involved is that its factual underpinning, i.e., that mental patients are presumptively incapable of handling their own funds, has been stripped by the Record in this case. If there were a necessary correlation between hospitalization and incompetency, the statutes could perhaps be justified. However, in our findings of fact we have rejected the Commonwealth's hypothesis that mental patients may be presumed less competent to handle their own assets than the public at large. Hence there is no legitimate justification for the Commonwealth's interference with plaintiff's custody and control of her property without an adjudication that she was incompetent to manage it. Defendants concede, and we have found, that plaintiff was entirely competent to manage her affairs throughout her hospitalization and up to the present time. Moreover, the Commonwealth's own statutes reject the automatic correlation between hospitalization and incompetency. If the Commonwealth's hypothesis that all mental patients present an immediate risk of loss or destruction of property were in fact true, all mental patients could be adjudged legally incompetent. Pennsylvania's Incompetents' Estates Act of 1955, however, requires not just evidence of mental illness, but of three factors: (1) mismanagement, (2) mental illness, and (3) a causal nexus between the two.
*fn15"
In re Streda's Estate, 12 D. & C.2d 523 (Del. Cy. O.C. 1957).

In view of our conclusion that § 424, read in conjunction with § 501, of the Act offends the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in the general context of this case, relief must be granted as requested by the plaintiff. In accordance with the foregoing opinion, we enter the following order.

ORDER

AND NOW, this [*] day of June 1974, IT IS ORDERED ADJUDGED and DECREED that:

1. Section 424 of the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Act of 1966, 50 P.S. § 4424, is unconstitutional on its face and as applied in violation of the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to the extent that it denies: (a) plaintiff and other patients who are not adjudged incompetent adequate notice and opportunity to be heard before taking control of these patients' assets under 50 P.S. § 4424 and/or appropriating such assets under 50 P.S. § 4501; and (b) plaintiff and other patients with assets of $2,500 or less the protection of their assets that a guardian or a court would provide if they were adjudged incompetent under the Incompetents' Estates Act of 1955, 50 P.S. § 3101 et seq.

2. The defendants are enjoined from applying 50 P.S. §§ 4424 and 4501 in the unconstitutional manner set forth above.

3. The Commonwealth shall restore to plaintiff all of plaintiff's monies held or taken by the Commonwealth or its agents from October 29, 1971, to April 6, 1973, when plaintiff was hospitalized at the Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry,

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